Trial begins this week in bar owner’s slaying

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A 28-year-old Kansas City man who told police he killed a Missouri bar owner at the behest of a Saudi Arabian student goes to trial this week in Cass County on a change of venue.

Reginald Singletary is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Warrensburg businessman Blaine Whitworth, who was shot in his driveway on Sept. 1, 2012.

Investigators say in a probable cause statement that Singletary admitted shooting Whitworth but claimed University of Central Missouri aviation student Ziyad Abid paid him to do it.

Abid was charged with the same crimes and held in jail for nearly a year before the charges were dropped after a key witness stopped cooperating.

Singletary’s trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Harrisonville and run through Friday.